In the News June 27

Workers Organize in Defence of Their Rights

Health Care Workers Call for Paid Sick Leave

On June 24, the same day Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced his new cabinet, doctors and health workers from across the province issued an open letter calling on the incoming cabinet to immediately legislate a minimum of 10 paid sick days through the Employment Standards Act. The Decent Work and Health Network drafted the letter and signatories included the Presidents of the Ontario Nurses’ Association, Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions — CUPE and SEIU Healthcare.

Legislating sick days is especially pressing, the letter writers point out, given the looming expiration of the Worker Income Protection Benefit at the end of July which provided an inadequate three paid sick days to workers off work due to COVID-19.

“Recovery for our economy and regeneration of our communities should be a priority for this government and it should factor in the health of workers that bore the brunt of the pandemic,” says Dr. Naheed Dosani, “Legislating 10 permanent paid sick days should be the first order of business for the incoming Ministers of Health and Labour, and the Premier.”

The Decent Work and Health Network points out that 58 per cent of workers in Canada do not have paid sick days. That proportion rises to 70 per cent among workers earning less than $25,000 a year.

Workers’ Forum, posted June 27, 2022.